


Adventure

by cantabrasil03



Series: Case-se Comigo [7]
Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, makogou children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cantabrasil03/pseuds/cantabrasil03
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maiha decides to go for a stroll. Minoru joins her. Gou almost tears her hair out, and Makoto has to hold it together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Maiha was created by digitalsoop, and Minoru was my creation that took forever to name SORRY OK. I am the stern parent that takes over the reigns when digi thinks up too many sad AUs for these poar children. Anyway. Makoto and Gou would make beautiful children and no one can convince me otherwise I will talk anyone under the table over this.

Sometime before her second birthday, Maiha wandered off. It happened suddenly, a minute of Gou trying to catch a nap while sick with flu. For weeks, they weren’t allowed out of their mother’s sight, and it was many months before Gou would be able to go to sleep without double checking to make sure they were in their beds.  

~

Gou had found that with two children, the best prevention for meltdowns was having a routine, and a schedule. So when Minoru was too sick to go to school, he knew what to expect from his mother. The morning was spent making breakfast and sending Papa off to work. Then came coloring time, and after that was lunch. Being sick meant he could eat on the couch, and Maiha tried to soothe her brother’s discomfort by strumming a “song” on the ukulele she had received for her birthday.

After lunch was everyone’s naptime, Gou included. She had been feeling unwell herself; no doubt from whatever bug her son had caught at school. With Minoru on one side of the couch and Maiha on the other, she thought nothing of shutting her eyes.

Just for a moment.

~

What woke Gou wasn’t noise. Noise was inevitable with two small children at home, and as a mother she had learned to sleep through any and all noise save for crying.

What woke Gou was the silence.

“Minoru?” she sat up slowly, the beginnings of a fever making her head foggy. “Maiha?”

There was no reply, no faint sound of toys being played with, no ukulele being strummed out of tune or a television with cartoons playing. Gou checked their rooms, and upon finding them empty, the front yard. With each step, the silence weighed heavier on her heart, and by the time she shut the door to the back yard, it had wrapped itself around her neck, suffocating. Sickening, paralyzing terror seeped into her bones when she realized that they were gone.

~

It was strange for Makoto to get a phone call from his wife during the school day. Usually there was a text at lunch, but calls were unheard of. Maiha kept her busy enough that he was lucky if he got a photo text, and with Minoru sick at home she would no doubt have her hands full.

So when his cell phone vibrated twice, he picked up immediately.

“Gou?”

“Makoto, come home,” Her voice was tense and thin. Something about her tone made Makoto’s stomach drop, his throat tighten.

“What? What happened? Is everything ok?”

Gou made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob. Makoto was on his feet before the she finished her sentence. “I can’t- I can’t find the kids!”

Without thinking, he grabbed his briefcase and headed to the door. “What happened?”

“I laid down with them for Maiha’s nap- Makoto- they’re not anywhere!”

“Shhh, Gou, don’t cry,” he was already reaching for the office door. “Call the police. I’m on my way home.”

The principal happened to be entering the office as he was leaving, breaking into a run in the hall. “Tachibana-sensei!”

“Please excuse me!”

~


	2. Chapter 2

Gou couldn’t bear the thought of waiting at home for the police alone, and they would surely beat Makoto to the house. She called Rin, praying her brother would answer.

“Hello?”

“Rin, are you at home?”

“I’m at Haru’s, why? Did you need something?”

“The kids, I can’t find the kids, Makoto’s coming home and the police are coming but I just can’t be here by myself-“

Rin almost dropped his phone. “Gou! Slow down, _what?_ What do you mean you can’t find the kids?” Next to him, Haruka looked up from his book, questioning. Rin shook his head.

“The kids! Minoru,” she was suddenly silent, and Rin recognized the sound of his sister trying to hold back her tears. “Maiha…they’re not in the house, I can’t find them.”

“Did you call Makoto already?”

 “He’s on his way home. We called the police too. Rin- I’m scared.”

“Stay home in case they come back. Haru and I will be right there.”

~

“Maiha, are you getting hungry?” Minoru turned to his sister. Maiha toddled along, occasionally distracted by a bug or a flower that grew out of a crack in the pavement. “No, Maiha,” Minoru took her hand patiently, as Papa had taught him to do. “We don’t eat those.” He tried to take the flower away, but Maiha screamed and held tighter. Minoru sighed. “You can keep it, but don’t eat it, ok? It’s nasty.”

“Nasty!” Maiha shrieked and threw the flower to the ground. Minoru held tight to her free hand as they made their way down the street. He had found Maiha at the end of their block when he woke from his nap, and he thought that taking her for a walk would be a good way to let Mama sleep. She was hot when he woke up, and Minoru guessed that his mother was also getting sick. Coughing quietly, Minoru checked to make sure Maiha wasn’t cold. He wasn’t sure where they were anymore, and he checked the street signs carefully to see if any of them were familiar.

A police box, they had to find a police box. It was what he learned in school, and what Papa always taught him. The police would help them find their way, and Minoru was sure once he knew where they were, finding their way home would be easy.

~

When Makoto arrived home, the police had already taken the report and left. Gou was with Rin and Haruka on the couch, looking ill.

“What did they say?” He asked Rin.

“They’re starting a search. Someone should stay here, in case they turn up.”

“We’ll search too, then. They can’t have gone far.” Makoto sat by Gou, noting her flushed face. Frowning, he felt her forehead. “Gou, you’re warm. You need to lay down.”

“She has a fever,” Haruka handed Gou a tissue. “We tried to get her to go to bed, but she won’t.”

“I can’t,” she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. Makoto was struck by how young she looked, worry carved into a face so like Maiha’s. His heart ached as he pulled her close.

“We _will_ find them,” he whispered to her. “We will. I promise.”

~

Minoru was getting tired. He felt that they had passed that house before- or hadn’t they? He wasn’t sure. Maiha sat suddenly, refusing to budge.

“Maiha, come on, we have to get home. I think Papa is almost done at school.” But his sister shook her head stubbornly.

“Carry me,” she held her arms up for her brother. Minoru shook his head.

“No, Maiha, brother can’t carry you. You have to walk.”

“No!”

With a sigh, he sat next to her on the sidewalk, an arm around her. “Fine. Let’s rest a little bit. Then we’ll go, ok?”

~


	3. Chapter 3

“Nagisa is starting from the high school,” Rin snapped his phone shut. “Rei is at the train station now, he said he’ll start from there.”

 “Haru, can you check down by the beach? I’m going to see if they went to my parent’s house. Rin can check the park. I think that should cover a good area.”

Haruka nodded. Rin scratched his head. “Yeah. We can trace a path back to the house.”

“Once you check the park, just get back to my house and stay with Gou,” Makoto started down the street towards his childhood home. “I’m worried about her with the fever. She shouldn’t be alone.”

Rin nodded. “I’ll call you when I get back to the house.”

 ~

The quiet rumbling of hungry stomachs momentarily interrupted the siblings’ quiet game on the sidewalk. Minoru placed the crown of clovers on Maiha’s head, smiling as she squealed her delight.

“I pretty?” she asked, her chubby fingers grasping at the crown.

“Very pretty,” Minoru smiled. “Like a princess!”

“Minoru! Make more!”

“I think we should try to get home,” he stood and took Maiha’s hand. “My tummy is grumbling, I think.”

“I hungry,” Maiha pulled the clover crown off her head and offered it to Minoru. He thanked her, but when she looked at him grumpily, he laughed.

“Do you want me to wear it?”

“Yes!”

“Minoru!” The familiar voice made the children turn to see their father running towards them, disheveled. Makoto reached for them, scooping them both in his haste.

“Papa!” Maiha cried, delighted at being picked up and swung around by her papa. Minoru cried out in surprise as he was lifted, and before he knew what was happening he was being set down again and crushed by his father’s hug.

“Where have you two been? We’ve been worried sick!” Makoto pulled away to look at them. He felt their arms and legs, checked them for injury. “Are you ok?”

Minoru furrowed his brow in confusion. “We’re ok, Papa. We were trying to go home.”

“You shouldn’t have left!” He scolded. “Minoru, what were you thinking? We need to get you two home, your uncles are looking for you all over town!”

~

As a general rule, Gou didn’t like to cry around her children, but when Makoto returned with Maiha on his hip and holding Minoru’s hand, she burst into tears.

“Minoru,” she clutched her son close, and when Maiha reached for her she pulled the baby into her arms, sinking to the floor to hold both her children. “What were you thinking?”

“That’s what Papa said,” Minoru replied quietly.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Makoto tried to be stern but his relief overpowered him, and he could only manage an exhausted sigh. When he heard Maiha’s laugh, saw Minoru’s familiar mop of brown hair, he thought his heart would burst. “You should know better than to leave the house without us!”

“But Maiha left first,” Minoru protested, his confusion bringing tears to his eyes. “And Mama is sick. I thought she could rest, and I could take Maiha to the park.” He began to cry, and Makoto kneeled to hug his son close, shushing his sobs softly. “I’m sorry, Papa!” Minoru cried, and Makoto felt his heart break a little.

“It’s alright,” he smoothed the boy’s brown hair, so like his own. “We’re not angry with you, Minoru. We were just worried. What if something happened to you, and we didn’t know where you were?”

“I didn’t want to make you and Mama worry,” he hiccupped.

“I know.”

“I thought we could read the signs, like when we go to the store together.”

“Son,” Makoto pulled back to look Minoru in the eye. “I’ve been reading signs for a long time, and I still have to tell Mama if I’m going anywhere.”

Minoru pondered through his tears. “I guess so.”

“So no more leaving the house by yourself, ok?”

“Okay, Papa.”

~

“Gou? Come to bed,” Makoto leaned against the doorway. Gou was sitting on Minoru’s bed, her hand smoothing his hair gently. Maiha was asleep in her mother’s arms, her chubby cheek resting on Gou’s shoulder. With a soft smile, Makoto went to her, taking Maiha carefully. “And you scold _me_ for letting her do this.”

Gou stuck her tongue out at her husband as she reluctantly handed Maiha over. “I can make exceptions, you know.”

His kiss was gentle, reassuring. “I know. It’s been a long day all of us.” He looked down at Minoru, who was fast asleep, arms akimbo. “He must be exhausted.”

“I think we all are,” Gou pulled the coverlet over his shoulder, stooping to give her son one more kiss on his brow. She followed Makoto out of the room, down the hall to Maiha’s bedroom.

Makoto laid the baby down carefully, replacing her pacifier when it fell out of her mouth. As he turned on her musical toy, he felt slender arms hug him, Gou’s smaller body pressing against his back.

“Let’s go to bed?” he asked, squeezing her wrist tenderly. She nodded against him. With a yawn, Gou let him guide her to their bed, snuggling close when he lay down beside her. Makoto wrapped an arm around her shoulders protectively. As he began to drift off, he heard her whisper.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For taking care of us. For finding them. And anything else I forgot.” Gou yawned again, and Makoto kissed the top of her head.

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” he answered.

“Yes, I do. You know what your son says; it’s rude not to thank people.”

He had to laugh at that.


End file.
